Thought processes and conversations started under the tilted cap of Tropicana Field. Someday everyone will know the Rays play in St. Petersburg, Florida, not TAMPA, or the fictitious city of TAMPA BAY.

Introducing Levon Washington to Rays fans

AP file photo

Maybe I do not get it. Maybe I am missing the entire idea of the draft when you take a player who is rehabbing an injury in the First Round of the draft. And the funny part is that the Rays have known about the injury the entire time having had the kid here a few weeks ago with his parents to do some ground work on even considering him for the Rays. He has even told the University of Florida coaching staff that he is going to try and get signed as soon as possible so he can get right to playing for the Rays.

Oh, and did I mention he is a distant cousin to Rays former slugger Fred McGriff who was sitting at the Rays Draft table in Secaucus, New Jersey and probably was the one to telephone his relative and give him the great news. But there is some unusual things to go along with the announcement of Gainesville native Levon Washington as the first pick for the Rays in 2009. Did I mention he is coming off an shoulder injury? The kid does have a pedigree that puts him just inside the top 30 prospects in baseball according to Baseball America, but even with his athleticism and speed, there is a huge amount of danger involved signing him as damaged property.

He is rehabbing nicely right now, with a total prognosis for no sustained problems after the injury heals, but the thought is to get him signed and maybe used as a Designated Hitter in the Gulf Coast League for the rest of the year so he can be ready in February 2010 for a full season team. Really? Is that too soon, or is the injury maybe a slight smokescreen that kept some teams away from the guy before the Rays took him with the 30th pick. And even if they did get a steal at 30th, does he have Carl Crawford speed, or maybe more like Gabe Kapler speed.

These things are major considerations for the Rays to think about before signing Washington sometime this week. Oh, the kid is above eager to get down to the Trop and talk money and get into playing for the team, That is a great thing to hear, that a player wants to play for the Rays. For years it was more like a disappointment to even be considered by the team, but after 2008, players are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and wondering if they might be the key to the next emergence of the team towards the playoffs in the future.

Oh, did I forget to mention that MLB.com did not even have a scouting report on the kid to place under his name on the website right after his selection. But that is not the curious thing to me. That is the fact that MLB.com had him listed as an infielder, while ESPN.com had him listed as an outfielder when the listing hit the Internet about 8 :30 last night. Now that is fine if the team pulled the rug out from under a few teams and selected a kid that flew under the radar due to his injury, but even high schooler Todd Glaseman, who was picked in the third round with the 108th pick had a small scouting report on him listed at MLB.com.

Doug Finger / Gainesville Sun.com

Okay maybe I am a bit bitter that two great catching prospects were still on the board and the thought of an injured player being picked in the First Round sounded more like a Dewon Brazelton than Tim Beckham type pick. But the fact that R J Harrison is so psyched that this kid was still on the board might be a better indicator of his possible potential for the Rays. ” There’s a lot of things we like,” scouting director R.J. Harrison said told the St. Petersburg Times. “First of all, he’s a premium athlete and y’all that have been around here for a while know we like that kind of athlete. He fits right in with the kind of players that we’ve signed in the past. He’s a well above average runner and we really like his bat. We think he’s going to hit, and hit for a high average. … We saw an advanced young hitter.”

Granted the Rays might have seen a pile of unclaimed gold at the bottom of the First Round, but could his rehab after tearing his labium and spending most of his high school senior season as a DH and not in the field been a deterrent to his high selection in this draft. “We didn’t go into this blind,” Harrison said. “It’s just a matter of time, and getting him back to full strength. He’s made good progress already on his rehab, and when he gets with us and gets with our people that will only make it that much better.” Okay, I understand personally that Ron Porterfield and the Rays medical team are the best in the game, but did we have to take this kid in the money round?

But with that aside, he might not have been there at the 78th pick in the second round, so I am going to reserve 3/4 of my judgment on here right now and wish the guy a speedy recovery and hoping he does sign fast and furious so we can get him into the “Rays Way” as soon as possible. But why is it that Andrew Friedman, the Rays Vice President of Baseball Operations just learned of the six degrees of separation concerning McGriff on draft night? If we had done our so-called background and knew everything about the kid, we would have also seen the correlation of the McGriff family bloodlines.

Of course this made no matter to the Rays. They were not selecting him for his bloodline, which Friedman confessed he did not know about prior to Tuesday night pick. When the St. Petersburg Times asked Friedman about the six degrees of separation he stated, “I learned it on the way over here (to address the media),” Friedman said. “R.J. said he heard it the other day. Fred told him again when R.J. called him to tell him the pick. Certainly can’t hurt and hopefully it can help us in the recruiting process.” And this was a kid the scouting department has said the Rays have been watching for two years ( according to the Times).

They had even had him at their homefield to do a short impromptu workout and nothing about the Rays-Washington correlation relationship came to light. They talked with his parents, and they did not divulge the family ties. Come on here, you mean a proud parent did not boast about their kid to a scout, in their home MLB stadium. It is a miracle people! Even though the kid is eager to get signed and maybe even get into a Rays uniform as soon as possible there are two words that might hinder a quick and sure-fire signing for the kid. Does the name Scott Boras send chills down Friedman or Matt Silverman’s spine right now. The kid is represented by the anti-christ of agents.

This is not to say that the client will not get a speedy and quick resolution to the situation. The client( Washington) is eager and anxious to get his professional career underway and has not hinted of going to even enroll at the University of Florida, even if he does have a scholarship waiting for him right now. He is not posturing for a prolonged stalemate, or even
giving out any negative vibes that you got when the Rays selected Delmon Young a few years ago. Hopefully everything will go peachy keen in Rays-land and we can get this kid to the GCL within a month or so to begin rehab and his playing career.

I am not against the Rays getting a bargain, or even a steal in the First Round by finding a talent that people are overlooking due to a circumstance like a shoulder injury. It is just the fact that it is like trying to roll a “7” and the odds are against the player most of the time. I hope he heals and becomes a great player for the Rays, but I am going into this First Round signing with a bit of hesitation people. I mentioned Dewon Brazleton before in this blog.

There was a guy who was a project pitcher from the get-go and did finally make it to the major leagues before finally falling from grace and out of baseball by 2008. The last place I saw Brazleton was at the 2008 Little League regionals in Gulfport, Florida helping to coach the All-Star team from Tennesse. Here was a guy selected by the Rays with the First Round with the third pick in 2001 Draft and he is now out of baseball looking in at the game.

That kind of puts the baseball draft into true perspective for me. Of the Rays First Round selections prior to Brazleton’s pick, only Rocco Baldelli and Josh Hamilton are still playing baseball at the major league level. Paul Wilder, Jason Standridge, and Josh Presley ( third Round) are out of the game. Presley was selected in the third round after the Rays lost picks to compensation for the signings of Wilson Alvarez, Dave Martinez and closer Roberto Hernandez. Day One is over for the 2009 Draft, but the murmur and the hum still can be heard amongst the Rays fans as to the selection of Washington.

This is the first true draft that will have Friedman and the Rays new Scouting staff’s fingerprints all over them. With their successes of the past, and their eye for detail, you have to take a “wait and see” premise right now with their first three selections. But there is a long way to still go here with the later round continuing today with more possible surprises in hand for the Rays and other teams in the MLB. Oh, and there are still a few great catching prospects out there guys……….just a short hint there.

10 Comments

I heard the analysts say that Washington has a lot of upside and that he’s the exact type of player the Rays have built their team around: speed, athleticism, baseball knowledgeable. Injury or not, he was the best fit for them, right? I don’t know. I think the whole televising of the draft was a bit pressed… but no one cares what I think. LOL.
–Jeffhttp://redstatebluestate.mlblogs.com/

It was so cool in 2008 when they did it in Orlando and the Rays fans went by bus to the event.
He does have some huge upside, it is just a sensitive situation with our history of draft dysfunction that makes it all so….boring.
The prime thing idea would have been good for a Monday or Thursday when most of the team were not playing.
Let’s see……….Baseball game, or stay home and watch the Draft?
The answer was easy!

Jane,
That is why I am not a member of the Rays scouting family.
I tend to look point blank at a definite weak spot and drill it in until it is either filled or I drive some one nuts……or both.
I think we are good in the outfield, infield and in the starting pitching department this draft season. But closing, catching and maybe a true hitter is something we can still find that will help the cause in the future.
But then, I am a dreamer.

I agree with Jeff, Washington sounds like the type of player who will fit in well with the Rays if he’s healthy. It doesn’t sound like the injury is serious, so it looks like a good pick. The Twins drafted a pitcher (Kyle Gibson) who’s also battling an injury, but like Washington, will probably be a great pick if it isn’t anything serious. The Rays have done really well in the draft as of late, and it sounds like they got a good haul even with the higher pick this year. -Erinhttp://plunking-gomez.mlblogs.com

It just might be a good pick, but ti will take a bit of time to sort it all out.
Gibson was another injured star going for gold yesterday, and his injury was a bit different, but I see your point.
I am just a bit biased this year wanting to re-stock the minor league system in a different direction I guess.

Something doesn’t seem to add up here. Washington is injured, there wasn’t a scouting report on him and people seem to be hush- hush about him? It does make you wonder why the Rays took him and why didn’t more teams take catchers who were available? All teams seem to need quality catching!

I still do not believe that the Pirates jumped that hard for Sanchez, but he was the top catcher in the first round by far.
Ever since that one kid got hurt right before the Draft and needed Tommy John’s surgery, the draft went away from the catching corps.
I think sometimes kids fall through the cracks, and maybe Washington did, but that is a minority, and not the majority in the draft.

Renegade,
I think you’re on to something. Maybe you’re right that the injury was played up to keep him “devalued” and available. But the whole McGriff connection seems strange. It’s not exactly easy to break into the MLB and I would think even a 27th cousin, thrice removed, would be shouting their family ties from the mountain tops. That’s the part that really sounds a little fishy. Interesting.
Lorihttp://luckylori.mlblogs.com

The kid is the second fastest person from the HS level to get selected in the draft.
That is not fishy. Speed is a welcome commodity in the MLB.
I know they have a mindset something, like the NFL to take the best athlete and not the best player available sometimes.
The McGriff six degrees of separation is an interesting sideshow to the fact that this kid might have severs shoulder problems in the future.
But the Rays medical staff gave their thumbs up, so I will trust their judgment.
I do not adhere to conspiracy theories at all.
It was just a side obsevation to a wild selection process and hopefully the kid will be here as long as Carl Crawford.

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.